Non-woven industrial textiles formed from one or more layers of sheet or film materials have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,454,800, 8,394,239 and 8,388,812; U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2013/0081772, 2012/0027997; 2012/0021171; 2011/0272112 and 2010/0239814. These non-woven industrial textiles can be formed from a polymeric film that includes through apertures that provide porosity through the textile. Alternatively, the textiles can be produced by spirally winding strips of polymeric material and joining the adjoining sides of the strips of material using ultrasonic welding or laser welding techniques. A textile formed in this manner is perforated to make it permeable to air and/or water. However, such textiles are not easily seamed; and there is no internal structure that helps to maintain a separation and void volume between layers of panels.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,784,615; 8,815,057; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0021178; and PCT Patent Application Publication Nos. WO 2005/042836; WO 2008/145420; WO 2014/001172; WO 2013/010678 and WO 2012/123439 all disclose various arrangements to provide a continuous belt for use as an industrial textile; in particular, as a papermaking fabric. In some embodiments, the fabric is formed from one or more lengthwise oriented strips of a perforated film material that are joined edge to edge. However, such arrangements may not readily provide adequate flexibility and permeability of the entire non-woven industrial textile. Furthermore, the component strips are difficult to assemble and seam. U.S. Pat. No. 8,563,114 discloses an industrial textile formed from two interconnected layers of a polymer film that is contoured by an embossing process that raises portions of the film above its general plane. Slits are then precision cut through the film to create apertures in the raised portions to provide for liquid drainage or air passage through the textile. Each layer of film is selectively slit and embossed to provide a plurality of regularly arranged protrusions extending from a first planar surface of the film outwardly from the opposing second surface and in which protrusions the apertures are located. The resulting textile is formed from a plurality of similarly profiled strips of film interconnected to provide a two layer film assembly. The strips are either offset over one another and interconnected by bonding, butt joined along the longitudinal side edges by a welding or similar bonding process, or are interconnected by inserting a filamentary material across their width through aligned apertures passing through arrays of similar protrusions. The resulting textile is then rendered endless and seamed using a seaming element such as disclosed in US 2012/0040150, or other similar seaming elements.
It would be desirable if the component strips disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,563,114 could be joined in a manner such that the exposed edges of the strips were removed from the wear plane of the textile, and thereby removed from exposure to abrasion or fraying due to use of the textile in machines or processes.
It has now been found that non-woven industrial textiles can be constructed from a plurality of panels interconnected in a novel manner to internalize end regions.